Aqua Illumination Prime - Unboxing & Review

[STiTCH87]

So it's finally arrived! Apparently I somehow became lucky enough to be one of the first 100 people to receive this light, as apparently only SaltwaterAquariums.Com has shipped stock in the US thus far. This is my first attempt ever at an unboxing and product review, so bear with me. I'm sure IntoTheFlesh can chime in as both him and I received our lights today.

First off, for $200, you get one heck of a great deal IMO. This light is smaller, and far brighter than I had imagined it. I would say one single light could easily keep a 30g SPS cube running strong no problem. With of course lower light SPS and higher light LPS toward the bottom. For my 10g Innovative Marine Fusion, I have decided running 60% intensity at 12,500k suits my personal preferences best at the moment. As I add coral we'll see where levels go from there.

My wife caught me in my natural habitat, tinkering on reef tanks...


I gotta say, when I saw how small the box was and how light it was, I knew this light would fit aesthetically just how I'd need it to. Very compact.


The light has fantastic, full control of all 7 separate LED colors. On/off times of each, control intensity, control ramps, cloud cover, lightning, lunar mode settings, every single thing you could think of or want in a light. It had it. I can't believe the power behind it. I have no doubts it is accurate in stating it illuminates a 18x18 square, 500 PAR, at one foot deep. I may honestly sell my 27" Maxspect Razor that is over my 16g and get a 2nd one of these for that tank, no joke.

Now, the other guy on here mentioned he is getting a discoball effect. I didn't seem to have this problem at all, as my color blend is working fantastic for me and I do not see any individual colors in the tank at all. Maybe it's due to my spectrum versus his, not sure. I will say I have fantastic shimmer with this light too. For those of you who have seen the Kessil Shimmer Effect, this rivals that, and MH.


So all in all, I must say, this light is fantastic, and perfectly fills the need for lights in a category of being tank mountable, fully controllable, full spectrum (I personally didn't really care about that fact, but hey, it seems like a good thing I guess), and not to mention the price is going to really make other companies start sweating, I promise.

This light I must say is so insanely similar to the Ecotech Radion XR15W, for significantly less. I've used both lights, and must say this size tank this one can handle is not much smaller by any means.

If any of you want any specific photos, more in depth review if anything, or anything you can think of, I'm open to requests.

My apologies that this forum apparently only let's you post photos that are blurry, and the size of a potato chip, due to the 97.7kb limit (who came up with that rule?!) but hey, this review is better than no review! Right?
...Right?...

 

[STiTCH87]

The clingfish likes it anyways. ☺

 

[dcforester1]

Light looks great, but I was wondering is your tank level or is there a wave in the water? I just noticed the water seems higher on one side? I love the look of the rock work, its going to look nice I filled up.

Derek

 

[jamesdong009]

Nice! I've been considering the light for my 15g. I may give it a try for $200 bucks.

 

[STiTCH87]

Light looks great, but I was wondering is your tank level or is there a wave in the water? I just noticed the water seems higher on one side? I love the look of the rock work, its going to look nice I filled up.

Derek

Thanks! And yes I have the return pump pushing out very strong surface agitation out of a spinstream so occasionally the surface gets a wave that's fairly high toward the front. But never spills.

 

[STiTCH87]

Nice! I've been considering the light for my 15g. I may give it a try for $200 bucks.

I'd definitely recommend it. For the price, what do you have to lose? You get so much power and so many features for such a small price.

 

[s_kelley]

Lookin good Adam, lots of light out of that little thing.
Keep us updated, been thinking of adding a nano too

 

[STiTCH87]

Lookin good Adam, lots of light out of that little thing.
Keep us updated, been thinking of adding a nano too

I'll be posting coral photos as I get them, to show how the light displays them, and also how well (or not well, hopefully not, lol) it grows corals.

 

[Intheflesh]

I played around with some of the functions last night. Man this is cool. I have never had controllable LEDs before and its a bit overwhelming, but the technology junky in me is loving it.

I am running manual mode, 2 hour sunrise, sunset, 35% intensity with a 14.5K spectrum. Then for an hour before and after sun set, I have the RB and UV channel running on 1% just for some ambient lighting.

My gf was freaking out with the random lightning, so I had to shut it off. ha. What does "Lunar" do? I have it one right now, but cant seem to figure out its function. There wasn't much...strike that... any manuals in the box.

Pretty neat little light. Already thinking of the Hydra 26 for my tank.

 

[STiTCH87]

I played around with some of the functions last night. Man this is cool. I have never had controllable LEDs before and its a bit overwhelming, but the technology junky in me is loving it.

I am running manual mode, 2 hour sunrise, sunset, 35% intensity with a 14.5K spectrum. Then for an hour before and after sun set, I have the RB and UV channel running on 1% just for some ambient lighting.

My gf was freaking out with the random lightning, so I had to shut it off. ha. What does "Lunar" do? I have it one right now, but cant seem to figure out its function. There wasn't much...strike that... any manuals in the box.

Pretty neat little light. Already thinking of the Hydra 26 for my tank.

Yeah I have no clue what Lunar is either TBH. Lol. I manually set up my moonlights, so maybe that's why I didn't see it do anything. I will say, weather mode pissed me off because I was at 60% and it was dim and it took me a half an hour to figure out it was a damn "cloud" lmao. But now all is well. The one thing that really confuses me, is that if you do Auto mode then fine tune settings, it always defaults the light to be at 5% across the board 24/7 when it's not active. So strange. I do wish they had a manual, but I just pretty much shoved all their bloatware and settings aside, and built my light to my needs and my rules, and it's working great.

It's the first fully controllable LED i've owned also, as my Maxspect was just 2 channel dimming, with 5 or 6 set points. So there's a lot of new bells and whistles, and I don't need nor use any of them. Lmao.

But I love the power, love the size, love the aesthetics, and LOVE the price. Lol.

 

[JasonandSarah]

Lunar mode should mimic the moon cycle in your area? So full moon more moonlight and new moon no light, with everything in between.

 

[Intheflesh]

AI Warranty Team
posted this on January 27, 2011, 11:36

Here's is a technical explanation on how it works:

1) Lunar Cycle reduces (never increases) intensities of all LED colors for the programmed hours of the day. It is a rough approximation of the 8 phases of the moon that occur throughout the month.
2) Intensities are reduced in 8 steps by multiplying the current intensity by a fractional number. The calculation is done every night at midnight, and one of the 8 multipliers are then applied to the current intensities based on which phase of the moon.

Intensity Reduction
New Moon .10
Waxing Crescent .20
First Quarter .40
Waxing Gibbous .60
Full Moon 1.0
Waning Gibbous .60
Third Quarter .40
Waning Crescent .20

As you can see, a full moon has no effect of intensities (multiplied by 1.0), so the nighttime intensities need to be set to the brightest, full moon level desired.
Take the example of setting ROYAL as your moonlight with an intensity setting of 5%. You would wind up with the following intensities:

Actual Results
New Moon 5% x .10 0%
Waxing Crescent 5% x .20 1%
First Quarter 5% x .40 2%
Waxing Gibbous 5% x .60 3%
Full Moon 5% x 1.0 5%
Waning Gibbous 5% x .60 3%
Third Quarter 5% x .40 2%
Waning Crescent 5% x .20 1%

Important Notes:

- Results are truncated to whole percent. Be careful when setting the "full moon" intensity less than 5%, or you will have 0% intensity for most of the month. The absolute minimum nighttime intensity to use Lunar Cycle should be no less than 5%.
- A full moon only lasts 4-5 days for the entire month, so the intensity setting of 5% won't be seen for 3 weeks.
- The year, month, and date must be correct for all of this to work.
- There are no intermediate steps or graduations beyond the 8 steps listed. The intensity reduction simply changes 8 times a month at the midnight hour.

 

[STiTCH87]

AI Warranty Team
posted this on January 27, 2011, 11:36

Here's is a technical explanation on how it works:

1) Lunar Cycle reduces (never increases) intensities of all LED colors for the programmed hours of the day. It is a rough approximation of the 8 phases of the moon that occur throughout the month.
2) Intensities are reduced in 8 steps by multiplying the current intensity by a fractional number. The calculation is done every night at midnight, and one of the 8 multipliers are then applied to the current intensities based on which phase of the moon.

Intensity Reduction
New Moon .10
Waxing Crescent .20
First Quarter .40
Waxing Gibbous .60
Full Moon 1.0
Waning Gibbous .60
Third Quarter .40
Waning Crescent .20

As you can see, a full moon has no effect of intensities (multiplied by 1.0), so the nighttime intensities need to be set to the brightest, full moon level desired.
Take the example of setting ROYAL as your moonlight with an intensity setting of 5%. You would wind up with the following intensities:

Actual Results
New Moon 5% x .10 0%
Waxing Crescent 5% x .20 1%
First Quarter 5% x .40 2%
Waxing Gibbous 5% x .60 3%
Full Moon 5% x 1.0 5%
Waning Gibbous 5% x .60 3%
Third Quarter 5% x .40 2%
Waning Crescent 5% x .20 1%

Important Notes:

- Results are truncated to whole percent. Be careful when setting the "full moon" intensity less than 5%, or you will have 0% intensity for most of the month. The absolute minimum nighttime intensity to use Lunar Cycle should be no less than 5%.
- A full moon only lasts 4-5 days for the entire month, so the intensity setting of 5% won't be seen for 3 weeks.
- The year, month, and date must be correct for all of this to work.
- There are no intermediate steps or graduations beyond the 8 steps listed. The intensity reduction simply changes 8 times a month at the midnight hour.

Ahh that makes sense. Far too high tech for me, but pretty interesting never the less. Lol.

 

[Owen386]

Thanks for this review much appreciated im making the south to led on my next build, in your opinion how many would it take to do a 36" tank? Sps dominated?

 

[Intheflesh]

These readings are at 12" depth, full power, and 18x18 area. If you have a shallow tank, probably 2. I asked AI about my 36x18x18, and they recommended a pair of Hydra 26.

 

[STiTCH87]

What's the width & height if the 36"? They ran two on a 36" fusion and it looks great. But agreed hydra might be better suited. I would call this a Nano light. 29g or less.

 

[dz6t]

It looks like half of a Hydra 26, is it? Thanks

 

[Intheflesh]

It looks like half of a Hydra 26, is it? Thanks

I am thinking the same thing.
No Director needed for the Prime, though.

 

[Owen386]

Thinking im gonna go with two 26 these look like awesome lights thanks for putting me on

 

[STiTCH87]

It looks like half of a Hydra 26, is it? Thanks

Yes, it is the exact same puck found in the Hydra, but reworked so it can fit into the body of the Prime, with a cooling fan on top and built in WiFi controller.

The Prime is half a Hydra 26. The Hydra 26 is half the Hydra 52. Rumor has it they are working on their next light which will look like an elongated Prime, also with built in Wifi.